My experience with Travel Triangle and Spice Green Holidays(my Travel Agent) has been particularly unpleasant. Let me share with you why. I must also add that we were 4 adults and 2 infants(<2 ye...
ars of age)
Booking my vacation with Travel Triangle:
I had finalized a plan for my Kerala Trip as Delhi --> Cochin --> Munnar --> Allepy --> Trivandrum --> Delhi
I was sent a link to make payments towards air tickets, I paid for the tickets and relaxed. Tickets were sent to me and I realized that tickets sent to me were Delhi --> Cochin --> Delhi. Which mean after my last leg at Trivandrum is complete I undertake a 6-7 hour journey from Trivandrum to Cochin to catch a flight when there is an Airport in Trivandrum.
I had to get the flights cancelled and got my tickets re-issued. Travel Triangle just agreed to bear 50% of cancellation charges. I had to bear 50% charges for trusting my booking agent that he would have done things right.
Now begins my story of ordeal with my Travel Agent.
Day 1 - Was at Crowne Plaza Cochin, you cannot go wrong with Five Stars. Day closed well.
Day 2 - We started from Cohin to Munnar at around 11 in the morning. We were told it would take approx 4 hours to reacch Munnar, however actually we checked in at our Munnar Resort after 5 PM. That's whopping 6 Hours Drive. Ok agreed this wasnt mentioned in the itinerary and we believed Drivers words that he would take us to Munnar in 4 hours'. So our bad.
Day 3 - We started from Munnar at 9:45-10 AM to Alleppey. Itinerary specifically stated "Proceed to Alleppey or Kumarakom for a House Boat Journey after Breakfast. The Journey takes Around 3 Hours to cover 150 Kms. " However, it took us again 6 hours to reach Alleppey. Mind you, we havent reached our house boat yet. On our way we were told that if you reach the houseboat after 5, you will not be taken for the round through backwaters. Then "BANG"our driver rammed the car into another vehicle. There is no place to upload the pic else I would have shared the pic for you to understand the extent of damage. We were lucky that none of us were hurt. Again I would like to repeat that we were 4 adults and two infants.
Then in the panic, the car key got locked inside the car and we were stranded in the middle of the road with nowhere to go. After about an hour an alternate vehicle was arranged to proceed to our house boat, which was even miserable. While we waited for the guy t arrive with duplicate keys we sent the ladies and kids to the houseboat. However there was nothing to eat/drink for the kids, not even milk. The guy at the boat offered some cold rice for the kids to which when my wife reacted he was kind enough to warm them up with salt. So our kids had salt and rice that evening. The A/cs of the "LUXURIOUS" house boat kept tripping. Later in the night I was told that the generator is not working properly that's why it is unable to support A/cs. After a lot of argument at about 11 in the night our house boat was moved to some other place where it was connected to some electricity supply and finally A/cs worked. The houseboat had lizards/spiders/cockroaches and other insects. There were no Towels in the bathroom which were provided after arguments. All in all it was simply terrible. Name of house boat provider was Dream Maker Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Next morning when we confronted the manager of the Boat, he said since you came late all this happened. I understand that if I came late, I was denied a round of backwaters as per policy but does my late coming means bad service/non functioning of A/c/ No milk for kids/insects in my room etc. etc.
Dejected we left the Houseboat to Kovalam, where we had our bookings with Taj and thereafter we completed last leg of our trip peacefully. So all is well that ends well.
So that is how my experience been.
So particularly selection of house boat was terrible and I would recommend that in case your itinerary includes stay at Dream Makers house boat kindly get it changed.
Best memory of my Trip would be my stay in Taj Kovalam(of course Spice Green Holidays or Travel Triangle does not deserve any credit for that). It was just Taj Hospitality that did wonders.